Ice Age "Data": 40,000-Year-Old Symbols Rival Earliest Writing in Complexity

A computational study reveals that Ice Age signs on ivory figurines share the same information complexity as the first writing systems from 3,000 B.C.E.

By: AXL Media

Published: Feb 25, 2026, 6:01 AM EST

Source: The information in this article was sourced from Saarland University

The Statistical Fingerprint of Paleolithic Thought For decades, the notches and dots found on Aurignacian-era artifacts were often dismissed as simple decoration or "doodles." However, linguist Christian Bentz and archaeologist Ewa Dutkiewicz have utilized quantitative linguistics and machine learning to prove otherwise. By measuring the "entropy" (predictability and information density) of these marks, the team discovered a structured "statistical fingerprint" that suggests these signs were purposeful tools for storing and communicating data.

Comparing Ice Age Signs to Proto-Cuneiform The most startling discovery of the study is the direct comparison between these 40,000-year-old carvings and proto-cuneiform tablets from ancient Mesopotamia. While modern writing represents spoken language with high entropy, both the Paleolithic signs and early proto-cuneiform are characterized by high rates of repetition (e.g., "cross-cross-cross"). Despite being separated by 37,000 years, both systems share a nearly identical level of structural complexity, suggesting a long-standing human tradition of visual encoding that predates formal literacy.

Portable Information: The Paleolithic "Tablet" The artifacts analyzed, such as the mammoth ivory "Adorant" plaque from Geißenklösterle Cave and figurines from Vogelherd Cave, were designed to be portable. Many fit comfortably in the palm of a hand, much like the clay tablets used in early city-states. This portability implies that early Homo sapiens carried vital information with them—perhaps for group coordination, lunar tracking, or ritualistic tallies—as they migrated across Europe and encountered Neanderthals.

Evolution of Encoding: From Ivory to AI The research, funded by the European Research Council’s EVINE project, places writing into a much broader evolutionary context. Professor Bentz emphasizes that the human ability to encode information did not "appear" with the Sumerians; it developed gradually over tens of thousands of years. Interestingly, the same principles of predictability and sequence analysis used to study these ancient notches are the fundamental basis for modern Large Language Models (LLMs) and computer coding today.

Figurines vs. Tools: A Hierarchy of Information The study noted that information density was not uniform across all objects. Figurines—such as the famous Lion Human of Hohlenstein-Stadel—...